Friday, 8 July 2016

Friday 8/7/2016 - I'll Think Of a Title Later & This Week's Watches. Oh, And Happy 100th, Miss De Havilland!

Okay, now I'm feeling tired. This laptop's running a tad slower than I'd like. Tidying up the photos for this post has taken ages. We'll see how long I last, folks.
And off we go...

I wore the Submariner last weekend;

I have some film loaded up in the blue Trip 35. The Nikon F seen below;

...needs some new batteries for the fotomic head. Problem is, they no longer make the mercury cells that this thing uses. However, there is an adapter that you can get off eBay which is shaped like the old batteries and, what you do, is pop a couple of standard LR44 cells into them and then load them into the camera. These adapters sell for about $16USD. I just have to get around to buying them. I think I'll probably need three or four sets. That way, I can use them in my three SLRs.

Admittedly, this isn't very high on my list of priorities, but I mat get them sooner rather than later. You know how life is sometimes. You say you'll get around to buying some cheap little item and you keep putting it off and putting it off, and then when you finally decide to buy it, it's no longer available.

Switched over to the Sinn 103 chronograph on Monday;

Spent more time than I should have polishing those two 1940s Australian pennies. Although, I must say they came up looking nice and shiny. My wife picked one up and remarked; "This is when coins were coins, and they felt substantial in your hand. You can feel the value of them."

I picked up that hardback copy of The Savage Detectives for three bucks. I hope it's good. When I get around to reading it.

Midweek, it was time for a switch. I grabbed the Omega Seamaster 300 and put it on a black NATO strap;

Reverend Ted commented on last week's post about my Tower Chieftain. He was wondering if my one still had its nameplate intact on top of the paper rest;

Yes. Yes it does. I'm giving some serious thought to re-painting this one at some point. While I understand that its off-white and grey paint-job is representative for this model, I find it looks a little tired after almost sixty years of existence.

The more I look at this machine, the more I begin to think how pleasant it would look in a cream and mint-green combo. Might give it a nice mid-Fifties kitchen appliance kind of vibe. Something to think about later in the year when the weather gets warmer. First, though, it'll need some TLC from my typewriter guy, the legendary Tom.

Got home from work tonight and decided to put on a watch that doesn't get much wear. Whenever I do wear it, however, I love how it looks;

It's the Hamilton Khaki Officer's Mechanical. At 44mm in diameter, it positively slaughters my wrist, but there's just something about this watch that I really like. I may look into getting a different set of hands for it because they've always seemed slightly too small for the dial, but again, that's another frivolity that's low on the list of things to do.

This guy here is one of my oldest acquaintances. When I was growing up, and my folks had people around to visit, out would come the refreshments and, propped up next to the sugar bowl would be this thing. Instead of pens, it would be filled with a roll of paper serviettes.

Did I say 'acquaintance'? I meant friend. Funny how little things can cause such wide ripples of nostalgia.

Okay, 9:38pm. I need some tea. I think I'll go rosehip. One more pic of the watch I've been wearing this evening;

I hope y'all have yourselves a safe and pleasant weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Oh, one more thing. I missed this last week, so I'll include it here. A big Happy Birthday to one of the last, if not the last, Keeper of the Old Hollywood Flame. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Olivia De Havilland;

Sure, she may not have had a career like Bette Davis or Katherine Hepburn, but she came to prominence in the 1930s, and that's good enough in my book;

This was her in 1936;

Much has been made of her famous feud with her sister, Joan Fontaine, another of Hollywood's Old Guard, who died in December 2013, but I'm not here to talk about that.

While I'll admit that I've probably only seen a few of her films, I loved her in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Dir: Michael Curtiz, 1938) and The Snake Pit (Dir: Anatole Litvak, 1948), a film set in an insane asylum. I saw it many years ago and found it a little creepy.

The Studio system is gone, the stars are no longer under contract, the moguls are nowhere near as flamboyant as the Warner brothers or Goldwyns of yesteryear, so I think it's grand that there still exists a link to the bygone era of Hollywood.

Big W will process a roll of 24 exposures for about $10. Or was it $12.95? AND you can ask for matte finished prints- so that fingerprints don't show- and, even cooler, you can have white borders on the photos to give them that old-school nostalgia.

I gotta get the Chieftain looked at by Tom. It works okay, but it's got some minor issues. If he can work his usual magic on it, I'm gonna try stripping it down and painting it. I have to say that these Skyriter/Cheiftains are very, very light. When I first got it, I thought it was a plastic case. Now I'm thinking that it's a sturdy 1950s aluminium.

Curious, have you invested in the Omega brand NATOs? I've been debating about ordering the Bond for collecting purposes, but the authorized dealer in town doesn't quite get it or have them readily available, whereas the boutique 4 hours away has them in spades!

Hi Javi, I just cannot justify the prices of those Omega NATO straps. They have a thicker weave which is more like seat-belt material. This makes them smoother to the touch than a standard NATO strap, but it also means that they can't be folded down flat. Instead, any attempt to put a fold in the fabric results in a noticeable curve which, on my slender 6.5 inch wrist, bunches up more than I care for. This results in a bulky look. Which is another reason why I'm no fan of these Omega branded NATOs. However, on larger wrists, they can look okay. I would imagine that, if you really want to get one, the boutique should be able to send one to you if you were to pay for it up-front.

Food for thought. The AD in Austin seems to currently think the strap is $480, whilst the boutique in Dallas says it's $175, which is still quite a bit when you compare it to the $12 NATO I bought online! It's probably going to have to wait as I continue to waffle on my first automatic watch purchase. A watch dealer in town has a vendor who could get an Omega Seamaster 300M 2531.80.00 with box and papers, circa 2000 for $3,900 which seems to be $1,500 above eBay prices.

Yep, I think they retail for somewhere around $200AUD down here. Silly money. As for the Seamaster, $3,900 for a circa 2000 model is silly money also. You're right about that being fifteen hundred dollars above eBay prices. There are a few Japanese eBay sellers who are quite reputable. They tend to mainly sell Speedmasters, but they also sell Seamasters on a semi-regular basis.